To easily detect stutter in Skyrim (or any other game, more so with v-sync on), in MSI Afterburner use the frametime also, not just the FPS counter. You'll notice how in a room, looking in a certain direction, your render time should be 16,6/7ms or so; looking a little bit to the left or right, the counter should show some odd number by 4 numbers or so, changing rapidly - in a screenshot the frametime number would appear as it was in that instance 30+ms in my case. A solution is to set a FPS limit of 58 in MSI Afterburner. A solid 17,2ms should stay for most part of the game (with some micro second burst, mostly unnoticeable). Maybe someone can test that this limit from MAB could eliminate stuttering from other games also?

It looks like limiting your FPS to 59FPS eliminates the stuttering in the games I've played, but of course, it doesn't get rid of the lag. BF 3 at a constant 59FPS and framerendering time is butter smooth. Still, HDAO gives a small amount of lag; not a problem really, it makes the game look worse - SSAO being more than enough.

Can the CPU used in conjunction with a particular gfx card also have a very detrimental effect with regards latency also? I remember with the same Nvidia card (560 ti) and an AMD processor (phenom II) it had all kinds of weird stutter going on in Mafia 2. With an i5 2500k setup, same HDD, same PSU, same memory it was butter smooth with PhysX enabled throughout the whole game.

Does the CPU memory bandwidth have a major effect? I know it certainly affects Crossfire and SLI setups with regards AMD.

If the CPU is slow enough, I suppose it can hinder a card's performance even on that department. As far as I know, Mafia 2 had some special optimization for PhysX to better run on the CPU. i5 being faster (perhaps on some set of special instructions need for that), it may give better results. You should also take into consideration what other programs run in the background.

Manual playthroughs, even when averaged over several runs are not as consistent as scripted tests, as TR admits. Variations in frame rendering times like we see are exactly the kind of thing you'll get from this way of testing. Still, the result doesn't seem a million miles off.

Must be a pita to manually play the same bit of game over and over, lol.

Manual playthroughs, even when averaged over several runs are not as consistent as scripted tests, as TR admits. Variations in frame rendering times like we see are exactly the kind of thing you'll get from this way of testing. Still, the result doesn't seem a million miles off.

Must be a pita to manually play the same bit of game over and over, lol.

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Manual playthroughs vs. automated tests have their advantages and disadvantages, and I think arguments can be made for either.

However, I am entirely sold on frame time testing rather than FPS. I've always considered FPS a misleading metric, and I'm delighted that someone is actually measuring something more meaningful. I no longer need to bother with FPS-based reviews, which is ideal.

Manual playthroughs vs. automated tests have their advantages and disadvantages, and I think arguments can be made for either.

However, I am entirely sold on frame time testing rather than FPS. I've always considered FPS a misleading metric, and I'm delighted that someone is actually measuring something more meaningful. I no longer need to bother with FPS-based reviews, which is ideal.

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It is not more meaningful. FPS along with frame latency is useful, frame latency on its own is almost useless.

Edit: In that test, it shows the 660 getting a higher FPS, I thought the 7950 had a higher FPS originally. it was actually originally less.

Skyrim, with some mods. Going from Riverwood to Whiterun, looking around, talking with some people, inventory management and level up, and also some messing around in Dragonsreach. I don't know from where those spikes came up, the game is smooth capped at 59FPS to bypass the silly in-game v-sync. Going under that, to 40+FPS in more heavy scenes, of course it will loose some of the fluency, but that is true for every game out there. Oh, and this is with the old beta driver, 1680x1050, 7950@1170/1600, 2500k@4,5GHz

Frame latency, even by itself gives you everything you need to know. Aside from the obvious laggy frame, you can easily compute your FPS from the frame time.

For instance, if all frames are rendered within 16ms, then you know that there's no stutter, and you also know that the minimum frame rate is 60fps. If the frame time is 8ms, then you also know the minimum frame rate is 120fps.

Frame time just simply a much more comprehensive measure of performance than FPS. TR is doing something right.